For Melanie Alix, Thanksgiving weekend marks another year without her son, who disappeared in 2008 and hasn’t been heard from since.

“We pray someone out there who knows something will come forward,” she said on Saturday, ahead of a vigil she hopes will yield information about his disappearance. “The reason we do these vigils is to gather strength from each other … we are not going to give up this search for Dylan.”

“They’re baffled,” Alix said. “It’s very unusual for someone to totally disappear and not find anything.”

“His bank account and cell phone were not used again after that night.”

Alix said she doesn’t believe her son was suicidal and he had plans to return to school to become a pipefitter.

“The pain is just as great as it was in the beginning … without the shock, the panic,” she said, noting that her friends and family hung tens of thousands of posters in the search for Koshman. “We just want to find him and bring him home.”

She said her son’s disappearance devastated her family, who live in Moose Jaw, Sask.

“The pain does not subside in this situation,” she said, adding that there has been a core group of people who continue to attend the vigils. “People’s lives change. They have other commitments … we don’t expect people to be away from their loved ones (on Thanksgiving).”

Alix said Koshman, the middle of five children, adamantly kept in contact with his family.

“He was a very fun-loving kind of person … he liked to joke, liked to tease,” she said. “He wanted to make sure he came to every family occasion.”

She said she wants to remind the public that Koshman is still missing and is pleading for new information.

“We are all suffering in a lot of ways still,” she said. “There’s so much anxiety and fear.”

“Without closure it’s hard to move forward.”

The annual vigil for Dylan Koshman will take place at 7 p.m. at 34 Avenue and Calgary Trail Saturday.

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